Sports news from Los Angeles and beyond

Kathy Goodman: Seattle again

June 12, 2010 | 9:20
am

I e-mailed my mother before the start of Friday night’s game
against the Seattle Storm.“Are you
ready for our third game against the Storm?” I wrote. “First game we only
played for the first 32 minutes and in the second game we only played the last
8 minutes. Maybe this time we’ll make it a full forty.”It was a longer version of my tweet to start
the game.I hadn’t anticipated that the
reverse would be true and we would just play for no minutes this time.The bad part is that if we just erased the
first quarter, we still would have lost, but not taken the 82-60 drubbing we
took.But the first quarter set the tone
for the game and we never recovered.

Right now, the Storm have the best record in the League at
9-1, and I can’t take anything away from them -- they are a pretty team to watch.Sue Bird had 13 points and five assists and shot
just over 50% from the field.Four of their
starters were in double figures and all
of the players who had more playing time than just the final couple of minutes
scored.They outshot us, out-rebounded
us (on both ends of the court) and took better care of the ball (committing 12
turnovers to our 19.)They stole the
ball from us 13 times (and Camille Little, with five steals, equaled our entire
team.)They shot better overall, in the
paint, from the free throw line and from three-point range.It was an old-fashioned blow-out.

There were a few bright spots for our team.Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton was perfect from the
field, going 4-4, leading our bench scoring effort.We played a solid second quarter, with more
assists than turnovers and outrebounding the Storm for those 10 minutes.But overall, it was an ugly game.

I will admit that coming off our win against Phoenix on
Tuesday, I was expecting more than I got last night.It is always a battle against Seattle,
especially in Key Arena, where the Storm have loud and passionate fans, and
maybe it was too much to expect a win, but I always think our team can win
against anyone. Friday night they
definitely proved me wrong.We came out
tentative, committing four turnovers before the clock had run off three
minutes.The Storm took advantage and
went on an 8-2 run to open the game.We
settled down a bit after a timeout, but then the Storm attacked again, spending
the last four minutes of the quarter on a 14-2 run, finally ending the first
quarter up by 13.For the rest of the
game, we never cut the Storm lead below 11.For all intents and purposes, the game was over in the first 10
minutes.

In our first nine games of the season, we have played the
Storm three times and the Phoenix Mercury three times.All I can say now is that it will be good to
finally see what the rest of the League looks like.At noon on Sunday, we will be back at home at
Staples Center playing the Minnesota Lynx, a team we have also already faced
this season (and beaten).I’ve decided
it is best just to look forward to that game rather than reflect further on the
past.